Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Serving in Ogden

Me and Hna. Marcum. Note the necklace I am wearing.
It is the one given me by my friend from the Marshall Islands! P.S.
Friend means investigator....

Cleaning the sink ( a sink full of ice cream) for Hna
Murillo's birthday. She is right under the A in angies and holding the
sink.

Hola
Familia y amigos.

Welp.
It has been quite the crazy week. I haven't been up to much.
A lot of packing and saying good byes and taking pictures. But it
has been an interesting week.

Wednesday we had a zone conference. At the end my Mission
President came up and said, "You will be going to Provo next Tuesday to
sign your Visa" then he walked off. That was the first time I cried.

Thursday, I found out that I would go to Provo, but they
were not sure if my Visa had actually come or not. They were sending me
to Provo and just having faith that my Visa would show up. I had faith
too.

Friday-Monday was a lot of packing and saying goodbye and
running errands. Throughout the week we got more information on when we
had to be ready and that my Visa had not come, and there was a chance that I
would be coming back to serve in Ogden. That was the 2nd time I cried.
Monday we went down to the Mission Home for dinner with the Mission
President and his wife. Also on Monday I got to have my last lesson with my
friend from the Marshall Islands. She is still ready to be baptized on
February 2nd. It was really hard to say good bye to her. She cried
when I told her I was going to Spain. But she gave me a beautiful necklace
and a flower for my hair and we took some great pictures.

Monday evening we headed down to Ogden to the Mission Home.
We had a great dinner and President interviewed all of us. I said
goodbye to my companions. That was the 3rd time I cried. I don't
like goodbyes. Then we went to Clearfield to stay the night with some
Senior Missionaries that live there. In the morning (today) they drove us
all to Provo. I was in the MTC this morning. Weird.

I guess now would be a good time to mention that I still do
not have my Visa. So I am back in Ogden. They are keeping me close
to the mission home because they are pretty sure my Visa will come next week or
the week after.

But back to being in the MTC. It was so weird to go
back. It was funny too. We were lugging our luggage around because
we couldn't check into rooms or anything until our Visa information was
cleared. So here we are (5 of us) missionaries, that have been serving in
the field for 4 months, walking around the MTC with luggage. EVERYBODY
THOUGHT WE WERE NEW. I can't count how many people welcomed me to the
MTC. I just went along with it. It was pretty funny. The
whole time I was there, they still weren't sure if I had my Visa. It
wasn't until the end of the meeting with the Consulate that the
travel office worker came up and told me I had to go back to Ogden to wait
because my visa was not here.

But, I feel good about this. I know that the Lord has
a plan for me. There must be something I need to do in Ogden. Why
it had to be such a journey of "you have your visa, no you don't, yes you
do, no you don't" I do not know. But I do know that I learned
to have more Faith in my God.

It was amazing the peace I felt. It was hard to say
goodbye to Logan, but as we were driving to Provo, I could feel my heart again
yearning for Spain and I could feel my dreams of going there return. So
coming back to Ogden was a shock, but the Lord blessed me and I could feel His
support knowing that I wasn't ready to go to Spain yet. Driving back to
Ogden, I became really excited to meet my new companions and see what was in
store for me until my visa comes. Don't think I am so good, and have a
great attitude about my situation. It is a blessing from the Lord that I
feel this way. It is not my doing.

I met my companions (Hermana's Kruetzer and Maya) at the
mission office. The office staff, and especially Sister Tibola and
President Hiers, were very sorry for me. But I was able to tease and say,
"you just can't get rid of me" and laugh. I was able to look
them straight in the eye and tell them it wasn't my time; I had something more
to do here. I don't know what that is. It might be just to learn
that I can work hard and give of my all in a new area for a week. I don't
know. But what I do know is that I have been called to preach the true
gospel for 18 months. That is what I am going to do, wherever it may be.
"I'll go where you want me to go Dear Lord"